Life Balance

December 14, 2011 · 0 comments

A trait of the innovator is an intensity of focus. Think about Thomas Edison sleeping in his laboratory or the engineers at Apple computer not sleeping for four days straight and living on pizza and coke. Boy, that really sounds glamorous and exciting, doesn’t it? Sure, as long as someone else is doing it. But for you and I:

I can’t be innovative because I have a family.

I don’t want to be a workaholic.

I want to have BALANCE.”

The pursuit of balance today is so important. (66%) of American and (77 %) British workers – that’s ¾ list their number one cause of stress as too heavy of a workload.

I’m just getting by,

I don’t have time to be innovative.

I spoke at a leadership seminar awhile back. I spoke in the morning and stayed for the afternoon session. The topic in the afternoon was life balance. The speaker was a psychologist. Her first exercise for the group was to have us break our time down for a week, on a percentage basis, among categories like time spent on work, family, health, hobbies, me, etc. The idea was that if we could have pretty equal percentages we were healthy and if we were lacking in a particular area it showed where we needed some work. Sounded good.

I tried the exercise but quickly became very frustrated. I just couldn’t break my time down that way.

One example is golf, which is a hobby and a passion. Ok, I’m addicted. I workout with specific exercises to support my hobby, I try to walk and carry my bag. A round is about 6 miles of walking. Is this health? I’ve built hugely successful personal and business relationships with people I’ve met while playing golf. Is this business or friends?  My family also plays, so we play together. Is this family time? Is this a hobby? Is this work?  Is this personal time? I couldn’t figure out how to do the exercise.

I was so frustrated, I stood up at great risk, because you see I had built a rapport with this audience all morning long, and asked the question – Dr., I’m really having trouble with this exercise, I need some help.  She responded, “yes, perhaps you should schedule an appointment with my office.” Professional speakers can be so catty. But as we discussed the issue as a group, she adapted her presentation to acknowledge that there is more than one kind of balance.

Like the seamless connection of the four Personal Brilliance catalysts, we should seek a seamless balance for our lives.

Photo credit: clairity

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Being oblivious isn’t cool

August 31, 2011 · 1 comment

A bright lady I follow on twitter who lives in Philadelphia tweeted:

Note: Do not ask, “Who is Michael Vick?” in the office unless you want to eat alone at lunch forever.

Michael Vick is of course the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback who just signed a $100 million contract. And of course there was that dog-fighting prison thing.

I am positive that this person who is oblivious to Mike Vick knows many more things than her colleagues because she spends her time in intellectual pursuits rather than following football. However, if she doesn’t know the basics she loses the opportunity to interact.

You might not like football but you should know your local team’s stars. Personal Brilliance Awareness requires an awareness of your environment. This awareness provides the key to access varying perspectives and ideas.

Ignorance is not bliss and it certainly is not attractive.

Pay attention to the basics. I know what a Kardashian is, that a pitch is what they call a soccer field, and that Jersey Boys is a musical and Snooki is a Jersey girl, even though none of these topics are interesting to me. Having an awareness for the day-to-day topics allow you into a conversation that may lead to a breakthrough.

To do: Study a topic that is far from your normal area. What can you learn about yourself?

Photo credit: Matthew Straubmiller

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Contracompatible

August 19, 2011 · 35 comments

My friend David Staley discusses his concept of Universitas as a gathering of diverse minds to create and innovate. We get together each month (30-50 people) for dinner and discuss pertinent topics. In front of the group last night David mentioned a light bulb that turned on for him when he saw an ad for eHarmony, the dating site that attempts to match compatible personalities. David said what he’s interested in is the opposite of that for Universitas.

While listening to David, a new term came to mind. Contracompatible. Innovation benefits from diverse inputs. Seek them out.

In a group re-imagining schools there was an architect who builds schools, a psychologist, a former teacher, a doctoral candidate studying creativity education, a retired intellectual, and a graphic designer. The age and sex demographics also spanned the spectrum. I listened closely for the bias in each idea, including my own. How this group dealt with other group member’s bias was interesting. There were a number of combination ideas. The blended solutions were much stronger than what may have come from a group of school administrators working on the same problem. If this group was dating we would be considered contracompatible but for the purpose of innovation it was extremely valuable.

I have a dinner scheduled Saturday with the CEO of a multi-national company, a hospital administrator, a call center employee, and a retired sales executive. Some are staunch conservatives others deeply liberal. Age ranges from my age to 20 years older. Earlier in the day I’ll be with a former university hockey coach and a landscaper. I’m interested in what this brew may spark in my thinking. Who knows what will happen? That’s what contracompatibility is all about.

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Situational Awareness

July 20, 2011 · 2 comments

Awareness is critical to the invention process, specifically to help you identify a need in the marketplace. I’ve always found driving time as great thinking time. A three hour trip is sure to generate a great idea or two I will want to pursue.

An invention I’m working on now has to do with vehicle safety. The need came to while I was driving. My awareness was involved in driving and a near accident pointed out that the marketplace needed something to help prevent the situation I encountered. I’ll keep you posted on this invention.

The situational awareness we’re experiencing at any given moment can generate an innovation.

So, the best opportunity for innovation is the place you have your greatest situational awareness. Your interests, your job. Look at the processes and the products and solutions in your area of expertise.

Pay attention to the elegantly designed things. Let them inspire your habit of innovation. But also be aware of poorly designed tools or products. How can you improve them? Practice this approach in all areas of your life and then with the greater situational awareness an innovation can emerge.

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Writing as an Awareness tool

June 28, 2011 · 1 comment

As a writer, I think I take for granted the value of writing and creating media every day. Perhaps your job or normal tasks don’t require you to write each day. I’ll suggest that you add writing to your repertoire, even baby steps, so that you can begin to take advantage of the benefits.

First, what are the benefits? I think writing forces an exponential increase in your awareness. If you’ve got space to fill in your writing each day, you notice things. In my case I’m always looking for examples of innovation to share with my readers. Therefore, I’m more aware of what’s happening around me. This holds true for any subject matter. What do you wish you were more aware of? Begin writing about it, even if no one will read what you write (at first) and your awareness of that subject will increase. This just can’t be helped.

The other benefit of writing is the process of ordering your thoughts. It’s one thing to think something, it’s another to actually lay out the thought so others can understand it. Disordered thought is a key ingredient to wasting time and effort. Writing can solve this problem.

Another benefit is that your personal network will grow as a result of your writing. You will collaborate with people on the subject of your writing. If you actually show someone your writing, their interaction with you and your content will be a valuable addition to your life.

In today’s world there is no excuse for not writing. We’ve always had the journal of course. The modern day manifestation of that, with added possibility of publishing to the world, of course is the blog. You can establish a blog from scratch in a matter of minutes. So, get started. Write about what you want to write about. See where it takes you.

Just, create that discipline that will introduce the benefits of writing to your life. Let me know what magic this creates for you.

Photo credit: Jen SFO-BCN

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Initiative – The balancing act – Fish or cut bait

June 16, 2011 · 2 comments

There are many stories of failure after failure before success occurs, teaching us to never give up. A significant argument for not giving up from an innovation perspective is the learning that occurs. Each trial generates new information. We learn about what doesn’t work, or what combination of components works better.

Another point is that we aren’t very objective evaluators of our own work. On one hand, we tend to downplay success. So, if everything isn’t a resounding success it’s easy to toss the whole experience, when in fact there may be quite a bit of accomplishment in the effort.

What’s great about the online tools we now have is it’s so much cheaper to fail. For example, we’re moving to video training for emerging leaders delivered online (http://ELCircle.com). This is possible because online video is so much cheaper today then it was even a year ago. Frankly, we wouldn’t even consider our latest venture if we had to go to a studio and spend more than $5-10,000 on each video. But, with the current technology we can screw up, learn, fix it and provide value. And, if the project doesn’t work out, we’ve still learned a new skill.

Which brings me to another point. What’s the downside? If no one buys your idea and it doesn’t fly, can you say you learned something? In the ELCircle example, if it doesn’t work at all, we will have a big increase in our skill set that makes something else possible down the line.

Think of your idea as foundational. What is possible if you have this idea in place? The right answers give you the motivation to move forward. When success/fail are the only alternatives the effort might not make sense.

Now, let’s look at the other side. If everyone but your mother says you can’t sing, you probably can’t sing. I have a core group of advisors that are purposefully tough on me. If they don’t like an idea, I fight to convince them. If I feel they don’t get it, I find evidence to prove my point. If I can’t, maybe it’s not a good idea or the timing isn’t right, etc. and, then it’s time to move on to something else.

Don’t miss the fact that I fight to convince them. I don’t blindly follow their reaction. The healthy debate is set up in an adversarial way on purpose to challenge the idea. It makes the great ideas better, moves not so good ideas into the worth pursuing column, and justifies stopping effort on the bad ideas.

Be stubborn about quitting. Find value in the effort. Fail and learn. Be brilliant!

Photo credit: Jeff Ataway

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Irreverent Curiosity

May 27, 2011 · 34 comments

British scientist and author Jacob Bronowski said, “It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”

A great example of achieving success through an increased sense of curiosity is the high school student in Lincoln, New Hampshire, who successfully cloned the rare orchid Lady’s Slipper.

April Dovoluk didn’t know that the plant was notoriously difficult to transplant, and nearly impossible to grow from seed. She also didn’t know that scientists had been trying to clone Lady’s Slipper for years without any success. She simply knew the plant was on the endangered list, thought it was pretty, and felt it would be a good idea to help it spread.

April’s success astonished the orchid world. April and two fellow students on the project, Tyler King, and Katie Skolski, won second prize at the prestigious International Science and Engineering Fair.

April didn’t know about the roadblocks. Basically this is the same thing as if she doubted the previous failures. The questions of doubt come from knowing and then challenging with a question. In order to ask questions that generate innovation, you need to entertain doubts. Without doubt, there can be no learning and there can be no progress. If the student is not permitted to doubt the teacher, there is a limit placed on the learning.

The ego of the teacher must allow for doubt – often a scary allowance when faced with forty teenagers or a room full of CEOs. This applies to any teacher, boss, supervisor, or parent. If doubt isn’t promoted, the teaching session may be completed, but true learning likely won’t occur.

Make your doubt productive by generating a question as a result.

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Little Book of Leadership from Jeffrey Gitomer Out Today

May 3, 2011 · 1 comment

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To buy the book now, go to

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The Role of Consciousness

May 2, 2011 · 1 comment

Consciousness is used to monitor the environment for us, bringing stimuli from the environment to our attention and awareness. The process can be seen when we’re quietly reading inside our home on a windy day. Our focus is on the reading and our awareness includes the book, possibly the comfortable feeling of being inside, and the sound of the wind outside. We are aware of many things but our primary focus is on the story we are reading and the overall experience.

However, our consciousness shifts our attention and awareness very quickly when we suddenly hear a log scraping sound on the side of the house. The story we are reading quickly leaves our awareness and is replaced with the possibility of damage from a fallen tree. Our hearing becomes more focused as we jump up to look outside with all antennae tuned to finding out what happened and to determine whether we or our house are in danger.

Social media tools like twitter allow us to open up this awareness and we have the technology to have our computer tap us on the shoulder and be conscious of the things that are most important to us. Technology is an aid. But just like the calculator in math class it helps to have the underlying fundamental in place and not lose the skill even though we have a tool to help us.

Consciousness is a process of observation. What are you aware of? You can work on this. You can develop your process of awareness and your filter of consciousness.

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Meijer: I may be able to find chopped green chiles

April 25, 2011 · 1 comment

Meijer is launching an app that will direct me to the right shelf for the product I want.

Hallelujah!!!

I’m pretty domestic. I like to cook, do my share of the clean-up, etc. But send me to the grocery store and my blood pressure increases 50 points.

My wife makes a great dip that requires chopped green chiles. I would testify in court that there is a conspiracy to change the packaging and move the darn things around the store just to drive me crazy. You would think they’d be in the Mexican aisle…well, sometimes. Other times the chiles are on a shelf all by themselves. Same brand, different color packaging too. When I finally track them down they’re in a huge can. That won’t work. Only the little cans work.

People go to college to learn this merchandising thing and for great reasons that apparently don’t apply to me I’m sure this nonsense is a good idea. But I want to murder someone after a chopped green chile expedition.

Brilliance to the rescue!

Meijer has taken location based capabilities in our phones to the next level directing me right to the random new place for chopped green chiles. Affinity must be combined with usefulness. With this kind of utility, I’m coming to your store every time. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Technology should make things easier and this is an example with a direct impact. I’m ready for the roll out to all the stores after some testing.

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